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A partscaster build for Nik

A partscaster build for Nik

Nik first reached out to me to inquire about some pickups and wiring for a partscaster project he was starting. Cut a long story short, he kindly opted for a loaded pickguard from myself, including the awesome McNelly 'S-Bar' hybrid strat pickup design, wired to a 7-way Strat harness and all mounted to a nice pearloid pickguard w/parchment plastics to soften the colours a little. Whilst we waited for the pickups to be made and arrive, we discussed his project further and he kindly asked me to assemble the whole guitar when everything was ready.
04 January, 2023 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: Dudley guitar setup Dudley guitar shop Dudley guitar tech guitar setup stourbridge guitar setups stourbridge Guitar shops stourbridge Home of Tone Home of tone customer service Home of Tone harness Home of Tone Harnesses Home of Tone pre-wired harness Home of Tone wiring James' Home of Tone Blog James' Home of Tone setups McNelly S-Bar pickups McNelly S-Bars Partscaster Partscaster assembly Partscaster assembly west midlands Partscaster build Partscaster building Signature Series wiring Stourbridge guitar Stourbridge guitar repair stourbridge guitar setup stourbridge guitar setups Stourbridge guitar tech Vega-Trem Vega-Trem install
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Descendant Vibrato install on a nice Vintera Jazzmaster

Descendant Vibrato install on a nice Vintera Jazzmaster

I had the pleasure of installing a Descendant vibrato unit on a really nice Jazzmaster earlier this week. It had the factory Mexico spec Fender vibrato, and Karl opted to give the Descendant upgrade a go. I have covered installation of these on my YouTube channel and main blog before, so I won't show those steps in specific detail again but will chat through a little about the approach. I've gotten pretty used to installing these and can usually eyeball the guitar as is, to see whether it'll be best with 1 or 2 depth shims installed. If the bridge sits pretty high in the thimbles therefore hinting that the neck break angle is fairly steep, then I find you can use two shims. If the neck break angle is shallow meaning the bridge sits pretty low in the body/thimbles, then two shims may be too steep of an angle so only one shim will be best/optimal. 
21 December, 2022 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: Descendant UK Descendant vibrato Descendant vibrato arm adjustment Descendant vibrato maintenance Descendant vibrato UK descendant vibrato unit Dudley guitar setup Dudley guitar shop Dudley guitar tech Guitar shops stourbridge Stourbridge guitar Stourbridge guitar repair Stourbridge guitar tech Stourbridge guitar work
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Hand cut top nut and setup for a very nice '60 Custom Shop Strat

Hand cut top nut and setup for a very nice '60 Custom Shop Strat

I have worked on Harrison's awesome Custom Shop '60 Strat before, but in more recent months he has been running BIG strings on it for baritone tuning on standard scale, akin to the likes of Ariel Posen and Joey Landreth for example. But it's time for the Strat to return to standard pitch at E and with it a return to a slightly more common string gauge of 10-48s (we're going for Stringjoy Signatures specifically). So a new top nut was needed along with a tweak to the setup again.
07 November, 2022 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: Custom Shop Strat Fender Custom Shop Fender Custom Shop '60 Strat Fender Custom Shop Strat repair Fender Custom Shop Strat setup Stourbridge guitar repair Stourbridge guitar setup Stourbridge guitar tech Stourbridge guitar work Strat Stratocaster West Midlands Guitar setup West Midlands guitar tech
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